Page:OntheConductofMantoInferiorAnimals.pdf/85

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76
ANGLING.

ly maims without killing, rendering animals a long time miserable; one perhaps has a broken wing, another a shattered leg, and a third left with a broken bill to perish, or, half murdered, to linger out life. A person of unaffected sensibility is an enemy to cruelty, in every shape, and will not carelessly destroy the well-being of the meanest insect. Man regulates his actions towards his fellow-men by laws and customs. Such laws ought to be observed between man and beast, and which are equally coercive, tho' the injured party has no power to appeal.

Persons, accounted goodnatured, will stand whole mornings, by the side of a bridge, shooting swallows, as they thread the arch, and flit past him; others will stand angling for hours together. Such persons should have been bred butchers. What humanity possesses that man, who can find amusement in destroying the happiness of innocent creatures, while sporting during their short summer, or skimming in the air or in the water?

On the coasts of Wales, and other places, where nature has formed rocky barriers against the ocean, sea fowls, of different kinds, frequent them. One whould have thought colonies like these might have been safe from annoy. They are useless when dead, and harmless when alive. It is not however uncommon, with certain savages, to divert themselves with shooting at these birds, as they fly to their nests or return with food for their young! It is not the man's virtue who will wantonly murder a sparrow, which prevents him from murdering a man, his forbearance is the result of effects produced by the penal statutes, those practical essays on morality!

Angling. Is the gentleman or lady fond of an gling ? a station then must be taken beside the mur-